[s-cars] Off with the drive shaft-finished

[Mark Turczyn]

Drive shaft shutter and now cracked expansion tank-

The driveline shutter and banging ended Sat.   I replaced the front 
drive shaft CV joint in place using the Porsche CV joint # 923 332 
03200 which I  bought for $75 from one of the after market houses. 
It is a 25 spline, 100 mm diameter CV jont.

Thanks to the listers who gave confirmed that this was the correct 
replacement CV joint.

I did it on my back with the front up on tall ramps.  I replaced all 
of the exhaust bolts since they were rusted away and used new CV 
socket head bolts.

To begin with-- I removed the six socket head 8 mm x 48 mm bolts 
along with the three plates that pair them up.  I was able to do this 
without rotating the drive shaft by using a long wobble extension and 
a a 6 mm allen socket to get the top ones.

I used a two arm T style puller to pull off the old CV joint.  First 
I pushed back the rubber boot by tapping on the metal cap with a flat 
screw driver--the boot is bonded to this metal cap that fits on the 
end of the CV joint.  Since mine was good I kept it on the drive 
shaft.

Then you remove the C clip at the end of the shaft---keep it because 
the replacement clip is too thick.

  Normally you want the arms of the puller to  pull on  the inner race 
of the CV joint --to do that you rotate the outer race and the balls 
fall out and you are left with the inner race on the shaft.

My CV joint was so stiff I could not get it to rotate enough to get 
the old balls out and remove the outer race so I just cranked on the 
puller which eventually broke the ball separator so the CV joint fell 
apart-- and I was left with just the inner race on the shaft.   I 
readjusted the arms inward and grabbed the inner race and cranked. 
The inner race fought hard but eventually came off.

I cleaned up the splines  and the rubber boot and then packed the new 
CV joint with synthetic, molly CV grease.  I also packed a bit into 
the rubber boot.

I  tapped on the new CV---well it was much more then tapping.  I hard 
tapped and then had to use a socket to drive it the rest of the way 
to clear the shaft.  I did not like the amount of hard tapping that 
was required so at the 2/3 down level I pulled it off with my puller 
and examined the splines to be sure I was not tearing up the shaft or 
the CV joint.  They both were very clean and straight.  It looks like 
the new CV splines are a bit more rounded so they have more of an 
interference fit then I would expect.  I was expecting a nice slip 
fit.

I used new socket head bolts after I found out that at the 41 foot 
pound torque requirement my allen head would start to round the 
socket heads so I decided to use new crisp bolts.  Also the new ones 
have locking compound in the threads so you do not have to try to get 
the liquid thread locker to stick to the now greasy CV threads.

I installed new tranny mounts while I was on my back, reinstalled the 
exhaust system and went for a ride.-- now shutter and the ole RS2'ed 
Avant felt even faster- and a bit louder on boost for some reason.




So that problem is solved and a new minor issue came up.  After a few 
hard runs I came back home and the water temp did not seem to be 
holding-- assumed a bad T stat.  Popped the hood and steam coming 
through new cracks on the top of the expansion tank.

Question-- I see two tanks offered on the after market sites- a first 
line (Myle ?) for about $40 and a no name for a bout $52.  I assume I 
should get the more expensive tank?  Anyone have experience-- I think 
a saw a few posts back a month or so.

Any opinions on the tank to buy?

Thanks again and I hope my short write up helps someone.


-- 
Mark Turczyn